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'Altered States' is a (silly?) Psychedelic Nightmare | Explained

Zenni Starman

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Ken Russell made many strange films in his life, and Altered States from 1980 is one of them. It's a trippy movie that explores sensory deprivation and the meaning of humanity! There's also a guy who regresses to a primordial state, so-- that's something.

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✏️ Article Sources ✏️
John C. Lilly THE CENTER OF THE CYCLONE (an autobiography of Inner Space)
https://shorturl.at/hHQ28
The New York Times -- SCREEN: KEN RUSSELL'S 'ALTERED STATES' by Janet Maslin
https://www.nytimes.com/1980/12/25/ar...

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~CHAPTERS~
00:00 Ken Russell's Weird Movies
01:36 Plot Breakdown
06:45 Analysis
10:36 The Ending
12:06 Altered States Novel & John C Lilly
13:57 Production Development Issues
16:18 Overall Thoughts
17:35 Outro

TAGS:
#alteredstates #review #explained #movie #filmanalysis #scifi #ZenniStarman

20 Comments

@ZenniStarman Creator 2 years ago Pinned

What a way to end 2023! I wanted to say thank you for all the support this past year! Even if the channel is relatively small, it does mean a lot seeing how far we've grown in just the last year and a half. Maybe one day, it will make sense to me. Until then, thanks for watching. Here's to hopefully another great year! 🥂❤️

@seedinho 1 year ago

One of the greatest movies ever made. Anyone on the deep journey within to the truth will find that this film deeply resonates with them.

@ga77165 1 year ago (edited)

When I first saw Altered States in 2015, I thought of this film would be as mundane and subtle. Boy, was I wrong. It is wicked. Totally wicked.

@CuzCutz 2 years ago (edited)

Waking up in the zoo after a metaphysical episode would be portrayed again in a movie 8 months later than this one. That movie was “An American werewolf in London”… And William Hurt’s performance was excellent!

@jovencasagrande2405 2 years ago

I was trying to find this movie for years, thanks. I watched it when I was kid and it was locked in my brain somehow

@fallenhobbit6554 2 years ago

Took LSD once and did the whole devolving until ego death but just in my head. Im 100% sure that trip was me half remembering this from childhood. thanks

@fredo1070 2 years ago

I always wished Ken Russell had directed the Serpent and the Rainbow.

@dahunlee_acousticguitar_covers 2 years ago

just wanted to say this breakdown was very well done. It was funny, but also had a lot of deep insight into the film imho.
Highly entertaining and thought-provoking stuff.

@jasonblalock4429 2 years ago

11:25 This is more interesting in context of Cheyefsky's other work. Many of his movies - including The Hospital and the famous Network - involve relationships between older men and younger women. And usually to the detriment of the rest of their lives. This is the only script of his I know of which ends up reaffirming a traditional relationship.

BTW, if you haven't seen it, Network is still worth a watch despite being kinda dated. Some of the best dialogue/speeches ever put onscreen. Plus it's downright scary just how prescient it was, outright predicting the takeover of news media by corporate interests in the 80s-90s.

@underthefatogre 1 year ago (edited)

Saw this in the theater when it was first released. Loved it and it's still one of my favorites. Awesome music as well.

@jackasswhiskyandpintobeans9344 2 years ago

I like this movie. I've always wanted to build a sensory deprivation tank.

@ssatva 2 years ago (edited)

I watched this in my first of many extended childhoods, being about the age of the post-grad version of the characters, and totally read it as a commentary on Creature Features!
What I saw was "What if someone did a science and it actually transformed them into something else? What would that have to involve? Genetics, Evolution, whatever powers went into the formation of the universe, and of course, ~~altered~~ er I mean DRUGS...?"
And I am not proud of how much I related to the Main Character (though I didn't like the cheating, it bothered me in part because of how well I related otherwise), so I got totally caught up in the drama. And 'being harpooned by a mad monk' has been low-key part of the lexicon of my friends since that movie came out... do I like it dunno but I sure liked what I saw then through those eyes.
Edited for joke format issues.

@Helaw0lf 2 months ago

It blew me away the first time I saw it last decade when sifting through DVD's at the public library. It helped being into Ministry and Godflesh beforehand to appreciat the source material they either sampled or referenced in artwork. Movies like this one don't seem to come around much anymore.

@joshuagenis1714 11 months ago

6:24 I just realized this is where South Park got the scene of cartman morphing back to his evil self in that dog whisperer episode

@darkpulcinella9690 2 years ago

Excellent analyisis

@kthx1138 10 months ago

This is one of those movies that changes my life. It's DEEP, disturbing and unsettling to say the least, with its "don't fuck with Mother Nature, don't fuck with your own mind, don't fuck with your very genetic structure" message, that we mere mortal humans are not supposed to know everything about everything, we are not supposed to know about the meaning of creation and destruction, life and death in the grand evolutionary chain, that's up to our Creator. Ultimately, love is the only thing that makes sense.

@JCmacDavid 11 months ago

Watched this when I was younger and liked it. I watched it as an adult and still liked it, but it was difficult to find, this was before the internet.

@ExMachina70 2 years ago

Oh God, the religious images brought a flashback to another bizarre movie, Lair of the White Worm. If anything that movie has a great song in it called The D'Ampton Worm Song. 😄

@Johnlindsey289 1 year ago

I saw this movie on hbo when I was 6 37 years ago with my big brothers as I like sci-fi and horror but this was a creepy and nightmarish movie that was trippy as hell.

Saw it again on tv at 11 and one of my favorite sci-fi horror movies. And a body horror classic. It predates Videodrome, The Fly 1986 and more.

Does this movie remind anyone of the Batman the Animated Series Feat of Clay episode and the recent The Substance?

I mean you can see how this was one of the inspirations to that episode even when Matt Hagen became addicted to his substance and mutated him. And when he couldn’t control his transformations like Eddie did in this movie.

The Substance I highly recommend as it’s similar to this since both are sci-fi body horror movies about substance abuse and mutations.

@marionobre2678 2 years ago (edited)

Never heard about this movie, it’s genius!!! He’s tapping to our existence, who ever went deep with Ayuaska, Dmt, Bufo, experience understand what he is tapping in, this is GENIUS!!!! He’s rising questions!!! This is genius ❤❤❤ I have to see this movie